EL SALVADOR Ariz Family SL 34

In the 1940s and '50s, El Salvador was the leading coffee state in Central America, and Ricardo Ariz's grandfather: Miguel Angel Ariz was president of the Salvadoran Coffee Association, traveling far and wide in search of the best varietal to bring back home. While receiving various seeds from around the world, he decided to plant a Kenyan coffee varietal in the mountains of El Salvador. It was a trans-Atlantic marriage of Kenyan coffee seeds and the Salvadoran ecosystem. So successful was the relationship that the future offspring would be called simply “Kenya”, and the children of these coffee plants have become some of the most celebrated coffees in the world. This coffee gives us the rare opportunity to see the role that varietal plays in the characteristics of a coffee. While Ricardo Ariz’s Kenya SL 34 has the sweetness of a classic Salvadoran coffee, it also packs the intense fruity power of its African counterpart.